An unemployed man with a master's degree in philosophy downloaded 3,500 child pornography images in a nine-month period by spending entire nights in an Internet cafe, a court has heard.
Adrian Savage (40), Millwood Terrace, Meath Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of knowingly having child pornography in his possession on February 9th, 2002.
Judge Desmond Hogan said he was reluctant to sentence Savage until the court inquired into a number of matters.
He felt he would benefit from the preparation of a probation report and adjourned sentence until July 9th.
Det Sgt Mark Kavanagh told Mr Hugo Hynes, prosecuting, that Savage was observed entering a cafe at 10 p.m. one night and not leaving until 10 a.m. the following morning.
He was stopped and produced an envelope with 80 child pornography images on A4 paper.
The images were of girls, either fully or semi-naked, and eight of the pictures were intimate close-ups of young girls . He admitted he had more explicit pictures in his home.
Gardaí recovered 32 envelopes behind a wardrobe in one of the bedrooms, with each containing approximately 110 images. They seized 3,500 pictures in total.
Det Sgt Kavanagh said the majority of the pictures were of semi-naked young girls. About 400 were explicit and showed the victims engaged in sexual activities with adults.
Savage did not have his own computer and had gathered the images over the previous nine months by using an Internet cafe. The images at his home were neatly arranged in folders and files.
Det Sgt Kavanagh agreed with Mr Brendan Grehan SC, for Savage, that his client was not distributing the images and had made no money out of it. It was merely an academic pursuit.
He was a highly educated man who had completed a degree at UCD before going on to do a master's in philosophy at Trinity College.
The English department at UCD then gave him the opportunity to do a PhD, but he had to turn it down because of financial constraints.
Despite his high standard of education, he had never worked because he was either over-qualified for some jobs and not qualified enough for others.
He lived in a small bedsitting-room and did not realise that what he was doing was wrong. He had since been attending counselling with the Eastern Health Board.
Mr Brendan Purcell, a philosophy lecturer at UCD, told Mr Grehan that he maintained contact with Savage over the years and said he suffered severely from depression.
He was seriously affected by not being able to do the PhD and because he was living alone, he was probably looking for some kind of satisfaction. He had now learned a very hard lesson.
Mr Grehan pleaded with Judge Hogan to be as lenient as possible because Savage had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and co-operated from the outset.